Monthly Archives: November 2013

About a year ago, I started writing down three things to be happy about every day (inspired by this book). I was fighting the winter blues and mired in first-world problems (“I don’t like my commute.” “I want some new shoes.” etc.) so I thought I would try to switch my focus to things like “Rain on a stream.” “Daylilies as big as my hand.” “Oatmeal and dried fruit”. “Seeing a hawk.”

It’s been a good exercise to remind me there is ALWAYS something to be happy about (even if two out of the three things are some variation of “my health” and “Toby.”). So happy Thanksgiving. Be safe, be joyous, be grateful–and I’ll be back Monday.

No, it’s not time to learn today’s lesson–it’s time for another annual “kitty blanket party,” in which a group of friends and our mothers make no-sew polarfleece blankets and donate them to shelters. This means, of course, lots of polarfleece spread out on the floor, which led to this virtuoso performance in cuteness Saturday night:

1. Fellow Misties, have you heard that Joel Hodgson is hosting a new incarnation of the Turkey Day MST3K Marathon? It will start streaming online at noon Eastern on Thanksgiving–there will be six episodes with new segments (written by Hodgson) in between.

Thanksgiving is in a week! How about some music for it? I put together about an hour of tunes for kitchen prep or pre-dinner drinks, starting with “Simple Gifts” (of course) and then jumping right into jazz, blues, and rock (yay America!). I was going for a mellow 70s, smoke-and-bourbon, slanting afternoon light sort of feeling.

I love Spotify but I’ve never shared a playlist, so if the above player isn’t working you can listen here. (Pretty sure you already have to be a member of Spotify for that link to work, but if you’re not, sign up!)

LikeFranny and Zooey, The Dharma Bums is my happy place. Because who doesn’t want to be on a camping trip in the Sierras with Kerouac and Gary Snyder, having camp tea?

Japhy got out the tea, Chinese tea, and sprinkled some in a tin pot, and had the fire going meanwhile, a small one to begin with, the sun was still on us, and stuck a long stick tight down under a few big rocks and made himself something to hang the teapot on and pretty soon the water was boiling and he poured it out steaming into the tin pot and we had cups of tea with our tin cups. I myself’d gotten the water from the stream, which was cold and pure like snow and the crystal-lidded eyes of heaven. Therefore, the tea was by far the most pure and thirstquenching tea I ever drank in all my life, it made you want to drink more and more, it actually quenched your thirst and of course it swam around hot in your belly.

‘Now you understand the Oriental passion for tea,’ said Japhy. ‘Remember that book I told you about the first sip is joy the second is gladness, the third is serenity, the fourth is madness, the fifth is ecstasy.’

After about 18 months, here is the finished memorial quilt for my friend, all quilted and bound and ready to be sent off:

As I sewed down the binding I was struck by how much had changed from a pile of old t-shirts to this, a real quilt with weight and dimension, that I was sitting under and that will keep my friend and her son warm. And so I thought of a quote:

Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.

My parents came over yesterday to help me hang Christmas lights and plant hyacinth and tulip bulbs for spring. And when I say “help me.” I mean that this happened (not shown, Mom digging holes for bulbs):
But I put the bulbs in the holes, at least…
Dad did a wonderful job hanging the other bubs while we were planting. Just look at this in the front!
And THIS in the back! (There might have been a reenactment of this scene when Dad tested the lights for the first time.)
The Pergola of All My Hopes and Dreams just gets better with every season. Thanks, parents!

1. The Writer’s Almanac tells me it’s the birthday of Georgia O’Keefe and gives us this quote from her:

Details are confusing. It is only by selection, by elimination, by emphasis, that we get at the real meaning of things.

Amen, sister–spoken like a good editor.

2. I’ve been watching old movies while I’ve been sewing the quilt binding this week (one side left!) and last night’s was Daddy Long Legs, with Leslie Caron and Fred Astaire. This scene made me want to be twirled while wearing a skirt made of about a hundred layers of silk chiffon: